Ponting to review future with Australian cricket

MELBOURNE - Ricky Ponting will be reviewing his future with Australian cricket after the team lost the fourth Ashes Test by an innings and 157 runs here Wednesday, with England retaining the urn.

After Australia lost another chance to win back the Ashes, Ponting was gracious and forthcoming after the defeat that saw England taking a 2-1 lead in the series with one more match to go.

“I’ve got to make the decision that I feel is right for Australian cricket right at the moment As a player and a captain I still think I’ve got a lot to offer the Australian cricket team, but I’ve got to sit down and obviously think about that at the end of this game,” ABC radio quoted Ponting as saying.

Ponting gave England “full credit” for the win.

“They’ve played some very, very good Test match cricket, probably up to the standard they thought they were capable of You don’t turn up in Australia and beat an Australian cricket team as easily as they have without being well-played and well-prepared.”

Ponting rued losing the toss on day one, but refused to blame the tough conditions.

“It was tough, but it probably wasn’t a 98 all out wicket. Then they showed us how to bat in Test match cricket and to post that sort of total it was always going to be hard for us to fight our way back into the game and we haven’t been able to do it.”

On his broken finger, Ponting said: “I had a broken finger coming in here but there was no way at all I was going to miss the game. And it’s exactly the same next week - I’ve got a point to prove to myself and to the team for my performances through the last four Test matches. I will be trying to do everything I can to be right for Sydney.”

Ponting is not in favour of major changes to the Australian team for the inconsequential fifth Test in Sydney.

“We can still level the series, which has got to be the motivation for us from now on. We’ve been beaten badly here, we’ve got to try and put that behind us if we can and learn some lessons from the game and get to Sydney and salvage some pride for us as a group and for all the supporters who have come out and watched us over the last few weeks. We’ve let ourselves down, we’ve let them down as well, we need to rectify that pretty quickly,” he said.